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Under the Macedonian CEI Presidency 2015, the Business Forum on “Promotion of Regional Cooperation for Improving Market Competitiveness of CEI Agricultural and Food Business” was held in Skopje on 26 November 2015. The event gathered more than 90 high-ranking participants from the various CEI Ministries of Agriculture, Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Small and Medium Enterprises and Embassies in Skopje.
Foreign Ministers of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Germany, Kosovo*, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia participated in the 7th Aspen Southeast Europe Foreign Ministers’ Conference in Berlin on 24 November. The Conference was organised by the Aspen Institute Germany in cooperation with the German Federal Foreign Office and the Italian Embassy in Berlin.
Five innovation vouchers for Moldovan SMEs, including start-ups and spin-offs have been financed in the framework of the CEI KEP Austria-funded project Innovation stimulation for Moldovan SMEs in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energies (CEI-ener2i-MD). The activity aims at raising awareness within the recipient institution - the Agency for Innovation and Technology Transfer in Moldova - on energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.
Young diplomats from 12 CEI Member States (Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine) participated in the 1st Diplomatic Forum on "Macro and Micro Strategies for Development: Strengthening the diplomatic capacities of CEI region”, in Skopje on 11-13 November 2015. The event was organised in the framework of the Macedonian CEI Presidency 2015, in cooperation with the CEI Secretariat and under the patronage of the President of the Republic of Macedonia, Gjorge Ivanov.
 
The Macedonian Presidency of the Central European Initiative (CEI) declares its resolute and unconditional condemnation of the terrorist attacks targeting several locations in Paris, that have resulted in a great number of casualties and injuring dozens. Being deeply shocked by this desperate and deep tragedy, the Macedonian Presidency of the CEI expresses its deep condolences and profound solidarity to the families of the victims, as well as to the government and the people of France.
The event was organised within the CEI Parliamentary Dimension, which along with the Governmental and the Business Dimension, is positioned as one of the three pillars of the CEI. 

The meeting mainly focused on intercultural cooperation promoted by the CEI, with special attention to several best practices developed over the years and supported through CEI instruments, funds and networks. Topics such as interuniversity cooperation and management of linguistic and cultural minorities were debated upon, in line with the priorities of the current CEI Plan of Action.
In order to take stock of the various initiatives aimed at building the most important infrastructure networks in the area and on the path towards EU enlargement, the two General Committees - on Political and Home Affairs, and on Economic Affairs - of the CEI Parliamentary Dimension took place in Trieste on 9 November.
 
Freedom of the press, the future of media business and models of sustainable business were some of the topics discussed during the 9th edition of the South East Europe Media Forum (SEEMF) held in Bucharest on 5-6 November.
The international Ministerial Conference on Climate Change "Towards the Climate Summit in Paris in 2015, Challenges for CEI Member States," in Skopje on 6 November, gathered more than 150 high-ranking participants, including 9 ministerial-level delegations from CEI Member States and 16 representatives of embassies in Macedonia. Several scientific institutions, international and domestic NGOs also participated in the event to exchange experiences and views on the challenges faced in achieving low-carbon growth.
 
The CEI and the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), in special partnership with the Media Program South East Europe of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), have announced the winners of the “CEI SEEMO Award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism” 2015: Aleksan
Curators from Central and Eastern Europe gathered in Trieste on 23-24 October to discuss the key topic on public funding for research and experimental production in contemporary art. The event “Before Numbers. Issues and Activities”, was organised by the Trieste Contemporanea Committee, as a follow-up of the CEI Venice Forum for Contemporary Art Curators held in Venice at the Ca’ Rezzonico Museum in May 2015.

The CEI is planning on submitting expressions of interest within the on-going Call for Proposals of the Danube Transnational Programme (DTP), in compliance with the goals of its Plan of Action 2014 – 2016.

13 out of 14 countries participating in the Danube macro-regional strategy (EUSDR) are CEI Member States and its status as an intergovernmental regional organisation fostering European integration, will enable the CEI Secretariat to participate as Associated Strategic Partner – ASP.
 
The First Innovation BootCamp under the CEI KEP AUSTRIA project Aim@Innovations, supported by the Austrian Development Cooperation, took place in Skopje on 13-15 October, 2015.

The final ceremony of the KEP ITALY project “Public Accountants Certification Training  - PACT” was held on 16 October in Skopje, Macedonia. The Italian Ambassador to Macedonia, H.E. Massimino Bellelli, attended the ceremony together with Macedonian and Slovenian Government representatives as well with the World Bank, USAID and the Center of Excellence in Finance (CEF).
 
Within the Know-how Exchange Programme  - AUSTRIA Call for Proposals 2015, five project proposals were approved by the CEI Committee of National Coordinators on 14 October 2015. The total KEP grant amounts to around 166.000 EUR and the total project cost to about 380.000 EUR. These activities have been selected among 96 applications which have undergone a two-step evaluation procedure:
 
Nikola Poposki, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Macedonia, holding the current CEI Presidency, hosted for his counterparts a Working Lunch in New York on 1 October, on the margins of the UN General Assembly. This has become a traditional CEI gathering in particular with regard to the observer status in the UN General Assembly. EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy & Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, also participated in the event.
 
More than 30 lecturers and participants from European and North American countries gathered on 21-25 September 2015 for the fourth edition of the Logic and Applications (LAP 2015) International Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
 
The event, held at the premises of the Institute of Mathematics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus in Minsk on 14-18 September, gathered 127 participants from several CEI Member States (Belarus, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, Romania), Cyprus, Great Britain, Georgia, Switzerland and Taiwan.
 
The Conference was organised by the Institute of Mathematics, NAS of Belarus and by the
Belarusian State University, and co-chaired by the Minister of Education of Belarus, Michail Zhuravkov, and Professor Vyacheslav Yanchevskii of the Institute of Mathematics, NAS.
The high-level workshop on infrastructure development on “Building on the Virtual WB Regional Centre for Hydrometeorological Services and Climate Change” took place in Skopje, Macedonia on 23 September 2015.

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